This chapter reflects on the author’s experiences with image generation using Artificial Intelligence over two years, from February 2022 to 2024. The process began informally and without structure. Focusing on the Douro region in Portugal, it quickly developed into a narrative incorporating elements of world-building, science fiction, retro-futurism, and alternate realities. Using an auto-ethnographic methodology, the chapter argues that this type of narrative emerged organically as a way to navigate the formal limitations and possibilities of image-generation platforms. AI generates stereotypes, but it is possible to build truthful narratives using these stereotypes as building blocks. The contrast between futuristic forms and impoverished, degraded peripheral landscapes reflects the sociocultural context of this region. The text advocates that generative AI can be a powerful tool for civic intervention as well as for theoretical and critical reflection.